The Pleasures and Perils of Life as a Hotshot-2005: Part 2- Kings and Corn
In case you missed Part 1
Well, Kings and corn isn't entirely accurate, but Silvers and Flames doesn't sound quite as cool. For our second big assignment of the year we were called to AK. We were all in disbelief from the time we got the call from dispatch on the afternoon of July 15th, until we finally reached the fire line on the 18th. The two days of travel were long and tedious due to the anticipation of finally making it to a place that I've dreamt of visiting since I was 10 years old. We were forced to cut back on some of the niceties that one might generally pack for a trip to AK due to a weight restriction of 45 lbs. of gear per person (fireline gear and personal gear). I was in a bit of a pinch considering my line gear weighs 30 lbs. without water. So, in order to cut back to 15 lbs of personal gear I started downloading. Tent- a bivy will do. Raincoat- a little rain never killed anyone. Long underwear- it can't be any colder than Jackson... Emergency blanket/tarp- how often do I use that thing? Once we arrived at the Missoula airport we were informed that the plane that normally carries 5 crews at 5500 lbs each would only be taking 4 crews, so the weight limits wouldn't be in effect. We were all a bit disgruntled to hear this news, but the excitement that our crew was going to AK for the second time in it's history of 38 years kept our spirits high.
Glaciers from plane
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We arrived in Fairbanks on the night of the 16th. Sleep didn't come easily for the first few nights due to the perpetual daylight. We found that things are a bit backwards in AK when we arrived at the Incident Command Post in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. In the 2 hours we spent waiting for our transportation to the fire we witnessed 2 car accidents, a drunk lady who spent 45 minutes trying to bribe us to save her house and let all her neighbors houses burn down (she finally decided it was time to leave when the second accident happened in a 3 acre parking lot with 6 cars in it), and a supply unit leader who was threatening to gouge one of his coworkers eyes out and skull fuck him. It was an interesting intro to the Last Frontier.
We finally got transported to the fire, where we began to set up camp and waited for the second half of our crew. After a couple hours we began to worry. They had left for camp almost 2 hours before us. When they arrived their chauffer's excuse for getting lost was that he knew the roads in the area TOO well. The remainder of the day was spent setting up camp because it was too late to get flown to the fire. When you put 20 guys from N. Idaho in the wilds of Alaska, their redneck tendencies come out in full force. We had the nicest camp I've ever seen. Our shitter was the envy of the entire fire.
Setting up camp
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The flag pole for the shitter
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The fire was on the Kenai National Moose Range. When we first arrived on the fire we were told that it was a Wildfire Use Incident, meaning the fire isn't being actively suppressed, it's just being monitored and guided away from structures and other valuable resources. Eventually the fire became catergorized as a regular fire, although our tactics didn't change much. Our goal was to conduct a huge burnout in order to obliterate over 100,000 acres of bug-killed timber.
Alaskan "sunset"
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The first day we spent on the line it rained intermittently until we were pulled off the line at 8 o'clock. I began to realize the mistake I'd made by not packing the raincoat. Our spirits remained unscathed as we humored ourselves by exchanging bear stories with Timmy, our bear guard for the assignment. The Silver Valley boys were all enamored with the idea of getting paid to tote around a shotgun looking for bears on fires all summer.
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It continued to rain through the night and into the following day. We were unable to make it to the fire because it was too foggy for the helicopters to fly. Instead we spent the day improving camp. The boys constructed chairs, tables, tiki torches, a spit, and various other knick-knacks to make our camp more enjoyable. It didn't take long to see that being stranded in a confined area with a group of people could easily result in a Lord of the Flies type of scenario. It would only be a matter of time before we might start calling someone "Piggy" and have a moose or bear head driven through a spike at the entrance of our camp.
Making tiki torches
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The amount of rain we'd gotten in 24 hours had us all worried that our days were numbered on the Kenai, but the forecast called for drier weather, so the fire management decided to hold on to us and continue to prepare for the burn out. We spent the next 3 days cutting a fuel break through the bug kill in preparation for the burnout.
Bug Kill
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The third day it rained again, so we were told to pack up the bug spray because we were headed for Eagle, AK, where the mosquitos would be so thick you couldn't breathe.
To be continued...
